Chapter 56: But I Barely Memorized It
“Daughter-in-law, are you pregnant?”
Lu Yibei, “???”
What kind of strange question is this?
If I answer no, it won’t trigger some twisted plot, will it?
Lu Yibei thought to herself, moving back slightly to create distance from Qing Ji, and asked, “No, I’m not sure why you suddenly asked this question?”
Noticing Lu Yibei’s vigilance and discomfort, Qing Ji scratched the back of his head and chuckled awkwardly, “Haha, my bad, my bad! Asking this question out of the blue is indeed abrupt.”
“Daughter-in-law, don’t panic. You should know that the Lu family are all good people.”
Lu Yibei, “…”
All good people? Why do I find that so hard to believe?
I don’t know about my father and grandfather, but I am very aware of whether I am a good person or not.
The answer is clear: I’m not. Lu Yibei thought.
“From the looks of you, you probably don’t have a posthumous child. I actually have a secret method. If you are willing to give birth to offspring for the Lu family, we could give it a try…”
“!!!”
Lu Yibei was just thinking about this when suddenly she heard Qing Ji’s words, and her expression changed drastically.
She looked at Qing Ji with a chill in her heart, then glanced down at her belly, quickly covering it and retreating several meters.
What is going on!?
People usually cheat their fathers and ancestors, but why am I getting cheated by my ancestor!?
While quickly stepping backward, Lu Yibei felt like she was on the brink of exposing her lie and risking a beating when she heard Qing Ji’s next words and let out a quiet sigh of relief.
“But then again, that wouldn’t be fair to you, a young lady. If you have children, you won’t be able to remarry later on. I wouldn’t want to do that.”
“Moreover, I am currently just a remnant image left by spirit energy fluctuation, so it would be quite difficult to operate.”
Lu Yibei, “…”
Oh my ancestor, could you not breathe so heavily when you talk?
It’s just… too nerve-wracking.
“Now that it has come to this, Qing Ji desires nothing more than for you to pass on the skills of my sect, hoping you will agree.”
As Qing Ji spoke, he raised his hands and was about to deeply bow to Lu Yibei and show great respect when she quickly stood up and stepped forward to support him.
What is this supposed to mean?
If I get bowed to by my own ancestor, what would happen?
In this rapidly developing city, there are tall buildings everywhere with lightning rods, so there’s no need to worry about being struck by lightning.
But she was worried about her father becoming an urban legend and breaking into her house at midnight to hang her up and beat her!
It would probably be worse than when she introduced her father to her single, older female homeroom teacher when she was in elementary school.
Lu Yibei thought seriously, “I can agree to you. However, I have never heard Lu Yibei mention any other ancestral skills besides cooking. What do you say about that?”
“Cooking…” Qing Ji paused for a moment, rubbing his head and muttering, “Cooking definitely counts as a familial skill, but that is the skill of the Lu family, not of my sect!”
“Could it be that my son Yuebo hasn’t passed down the family skills? Why is that…”
“The family skills of the Lu family?” Lu Yibei, confused, couldn’t help but ask, “I don’t quite understand. Could you enlighten me, Ancestor?”
“Of course!” Qing Ji replied, slightly tilting his head to look at the sky, as if reminiscing. After pondering for a while, he said, “This is a long story…”
“It’s fine, take your time. I’m not in a hurry.” Lu Yibei replied.
How obedient. JPG
Qing Ji nodded, and began to speak, “Then I will start from the beginning…”
“There is a famous place in the Jinan Region called the Chunyang Temple, built during the Song Dynasty, destroyed by fire, and after being rebuilt, it was renamed Dachunyang Palace.”
“Ah, so… you are a disciple of Chunyang? Does that mean you can use the Taixu Sword Intent, Heaven and Earth Boundless, and Ten Thousand Swords Return to the Sect?” Lu Yibei couldn’t help but ask.
Upon hearing this, Qing Ji tilted his head and looked at Lu Yibei, his bewildered expression seeming to ask, “What are you talking about?”
“Uh…” Lu Yibei waved her hand, “Just a large fashion social app, nothing to worry about. Please continue!”
Qing Ji gave Lu Yibei a strange look; although he still didn’t understand what a fashion social app meant, he suppressed his curiosity and continued.
……
Dachunyang Palace is undoubtedly a powerful place, historically a gathering spot for practitioners. Even now, it remains one of the stable sources for the Siye Association Operatives.
However, Qing Ji’s background has no direct connection to Dachunyang Palace; he mentioned it because his sect can barely be considered to be on the same mountain, a typical “illegal building” depending on their incense offerings.
This small Taoist temple, which has no specific name, is located about a hundred meters from the main gate of Dachunyang Palace. Following a tranquil winding path, after two or three miles, you can find a few dilapidated temples that had seen better days.
Temples like these are plentiful in the surrounding mountains, often visited by devout men and women who mistakenly wander deep into the empty mountains on their way to Dachunyang Palace and may be lucky enough to catch a glimpse.
But among the numerous small Taoist temples, Qing Ji’s sect is particularly unique.
While Dachunyang Palace practices Quanzhen, there are also practitioners of Zhengyi on the mountain, yet the few people in this small Taoist temple practiced various things, each lacking to master any, and were once teased by Daoists from other mountains for failing to even successfully depend on incense offerings.
In this poor little Taoist temple, which could run out of supplies at any moment, one winter morning after a heavy snowfall, they welcomed an unexpected new life—a nearly frozen male infant.
The temple teachers were all so ancient that they had long forgotten their worldly names, so the infant did not possess a surname.
Qing Ji is simply Qing Ji, with a name but no surname.
He was named after being discovered on a snowy morning, signifying the stopping of rain and dispersion of fog, and the idea of clear sunny weather.
Qing Ji’s arrival added burden to the already meager little temple. Initially, they could manage to eat white buns with vegetables, but later, they could only have coarse grain and pickles.
The small temple was not prosperous in terms of people; the group of elderly Daoists nearing their end suddenly took in a child and naturally poured all their learning into him, just hoping to pass on their legacy.
Many of the things taught by the old Daoists were the bits and pieces they themselves only partially understood, and truly mastering them would take a genius even from Dachunyang Palace.
Additionally, Qing Ji’s innate foundation was poor. The old Daoists did not expect him to achieve anything remarkable; they just hoped the incense offering could continue.
Qing Ji was also a good disciple; thankful for the kindness of his masters, he was single-minded and didn’t think much about the theoretical spells and talismans having any side effects.
As long as his masters dared to teach him, he dared to learn!
He started practicing under his masters from the age of three, and by the end of the first two years, he had already gotten a preliminary grasp.
In the fifth year, he made slight progress.
By the ninth year, he had learned everything his masters knew.
To make sure Qing Ji stayed and wouldn’t be taken away by the people of Dachunyang Palace, the temple resorted to all kinds of deception, and with their inability to teach anything new, they fabricated from various records in books.
Even the spirit patterns were a haphazard drawing; they stuffed whatever materials they had in, with only one principle: not to be deadly!
The elderly Daoists initially were just reluctant to let go of Qing Ji, hoping he would discover the truth later and stay by their side longer.
But no one expected that.
In the thirteenth year, this picked-up foolish disciple actually… learned it all, even condensing the spirit pattern【Taiji Hunlun】 that no one had ever seen before!
Thus, by the age of eighteen, Qing Ji had already started wreaking havoc in the surroundings.
————
Upon hearing this, Lu Yibei couldn’t help but ask, “Huh? Why eighteen? Didn’t you already learn everything at sixteen?”
Could it be that during those two years, you were learning bad things? Lu Yibei thought to herself.
“Well…” Qing Ji scratched the back of his head awkwardly, “The things I learned, while they were taught by my masters according to ancient records, had a lot of incomplete records and were all made up. When practicing, it was inevitable to run into issues.”
“At first, when I wasn’t delving deeply, it was fine. After practicing for several more years, problems emerged.”
“So… during those two years, I became obsessed with my practice and basically spent it lying in a sickbed.”
Lu Yibei, “…”
The custom of seniors cheating their juniors actually originated from that time?
————
In those years, Qing Ji had plenty to do every day.
Today, he sneaked a peek at the sword-practicing maidens of Dachunyang Palace, pretending to be an otherworldly expert, haphazardly offering pointers. Ironically, later, the Daoists of Dachunyang Palace discovered he was indeed correct!
Tomorrow he would trick a group of worshippers into walking ten miles to his little temple that didn’t even have two decent statues; those who didn’t offer incense money wouldn’t be allowed to leave. Yet before they left, he would also provide them with some exaggeratedly effective talismans.
Tomorrow, he would steal the crowing rooster from a neighboring temple, stew it for soup for his master, and then take a chicken leg for himself while secretly opening the adult version of the “Lady’s Picture” text after breaking into Dachunyang Palace’s Chief Priest’s quarters, leaving behind a greasy handprint, causing the Chief Priest to be unable to sleep peacefully for several days after the secret was discovered.
Calculating that time, those one or two years could be considered among the hardest times for the surrounding Dachunyang Palace. The small and large temples suffered greatly from him.
The foolish disciple suddenly had a breakthrough and became a little demon, causing headaches for the elderly Daoists in the nameless temple. Whether beaten or scolded, nothing worked; he just kept smiling while holding on.
Even the Lu Zu hired from Dachunyang Palace to deal with him ended up leaving only a few shallow bl**d marks when striking him.
————
“……”
Upon hearing this, Lu Yibei opened her mouth, wanting to say something but stopping short.
Noticing Lu Yibei’s small movements, Qing Ji questioned in confusion, “What’s wrong? Is there a problem? I am ashamed to admit that those were all foolish things done in my young and ignorant days.”
“Nothing!” Lu Yibei shook her head.
Unexpectedly, this is also a family heritage, traditional skills?
I, the Torturer King of Huacheng, should call you the Torturer King of Jinan. Lu Yibei thought.
————
Years later, under the joint requests of various temples on the mountain, Qing Ji was ultimately driven down the mountain.
The reason for driving him away was easy to find because that year, the country was in turmoil and war raged everywhere.
Since ancient times, whenever there were wars or calamities, numerous urban legends and evil spirits arose, unclear if the evil was corrupting people’s hearts or if the decline of morals led to the emergence of evil beings.
The Daoists used the excuse that Qing Ji’s talent was exceptional and he shouldn’t remain in one place; there were broader horizons waiting for him to explore, urging him to go down the mountain to exterminate demons and evil.
Flattered by the words of the crowd, Qing Ji became overjoyed and that very night departed the mountain with a few treasures given by his masters.
Once down the mountain, he discovered he was already invincible.
————
“No, since you are already invincible in the world, why still…” Lu Yibei looked Qing Ji up and down, seeing that he was just a remnant image condensed by spirit energy, and she hesitated to continue.
“This is different!” Qing Ji waved his hand, “I could dodge knives and avoid bullets, but that time, the opponent not only had sorcerers but over a hundred guns and several cannons firing in simultaneity. Who could withstand that!”
Lu Yibei nodded, “That’s for sure, the times have changed, artillery wipes the ground clean, everyone’s at risk!”
“However, I did manage to k*ll quite a few of those guys, so it wasn’t too bad.” Qing Ji smacked his lips.
Lu Yibei, “…”
You’re impressive!
Such a feat, as a wayward descendent, I could never accomplish. Lu Yibei thought.
————
After leaving the mountain, Qing Ji went on a demon-slaying spree, using the treasures from his sect to seal many of the local evil beings.
Later, he clashed with local warlords to protect an ancient temple from being plundered.
That day, beneath the gate of the ancient temple, a waterfall that had flowed for many years was severed by a single sword strike. Countless water droplets, guided by the sword intent, formed a line and gathered into a sword, the torrent of water crashing and exploding in mid-air in a spectacular manner, evenly matching the storm of bullets and cannonballs raining down.
After that, the warlords retreated, the waterfall dried, and Qing Ji was left wounded and exhausted, carrying with him only the Ling Tai Purification blade, departing alone to Sichuan to find the little cook, Lu Yanzhi, whom he met during his travels.
When he reached the outskirts of Huacheng, he heard about ghosts harming people and couldn’t help but step in to assist.
However, at that time, Qing Ji’s strength had drastically declined, nearly dying at the hands of the ghost formed from the grievances of actors and children.
Fortunately, in that crisis, he had a sudden idea and blew the suona, disturbing their minds, seizing the opportunity to break the Ling Tai Purification, using the sword body to suppress the ghost.
As for the blade, later it was taken by the Young Lady Lu Yanzhi, forged into five kitchen utensils, and she opened a restaurant near Huacheng.
————
Though no longer invincible, the outcome was still good; at least the lovers became a couple and enjoyed a happy and fulfilling life, which made others envious…
After thinking that, Lu Yibei looked at Qing Ji and asked, “So, um, my husband’s surname is actually your wife’s surname, right?”
“That’s right.” Qing Ji replied.
“So, the Happy Neighborhood, uh…” Lu Yibei pointed at the ancient sword in Qing Ji’s hand, “Is the urban legend sealed by this ancient sword the last one you defeated?”
“Well, not exactly…” Qing Ji waved his hand with a smile, “I’m clumsy and can’t learn Yanzhi’s cooking skills, so sometimes I help with funerals, play the suona, perform rituals, and exorcise evil spirits, earning some rewards to supplement the household income.”
What a good man! Just like my father; this might be the only quality gene in my family? Lu Yibei silently gave a thumbs up in her heart.
“So, this sword…” Lu Yibei pointed at the Ling Tai Purification in Qing Ji’s hand, “Does that mean it can’t return to the way it was before? Those kitchen knives, I was already masterful with them.”
“Well…” Qing Ji looked down at the ancient sword in his hand, then seriously turned to Lu Yibei and said earnestly, “This is actually not a sword.”
“When my master handed me this Ling Tai Purification, it resembled neither a kn*fe nor a sword, had not been sharpened, and was like a heavy steel rod or iron ruler. Only after I used it for a long time did it transform into a long sword.”
“Mm…”
Lu Yibei cupped her chin with both hands, staring at the Ling Tai Purification in silence. After a while, she raised her head to look at Qing Ji and seriously asked, “So, if I were to use it, would it eventually have the chance to turn into something like a shield or chain mail for defense, right?”
“It could, but actually helmets and breastplates would also work.” Lu Yibei added.
“???”
With such a cowardly wife, how did my great-grandson named Lu Yibei d*e?
Could it be that when they encountered a crisis, she ran away to save herself and abandoned Lu Yibei?
Qing Ji was somewhat taken aback by Lu Yibei’s question, his mouth twitching slightly. After a long time, he responded, “Maybe it could, but the leap from weapon to armor is too big. I can’t guarantee it.”
“Oh…”
Unaware that she had almost made Qing Ji so angry that he would clear the household, Lu Yibei continued, “So, as for the skills you mentioned passing down, I haven’t seen them! Are you going to teach me here?”
“Exactly!” Qing Ji said, “But the memories left by the remnant image are few, so I’m afraid I can only teach you the ‘Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration’ and a few simple spell formulas.”
“Then let’s get started!”
Upon hearing that there are powerful skills to learn, Lu Yibei immediately became excited, her hands rubbing together anxiously.
“However…” Qing Ji paused to explain, “The ‘Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration’ is not easy. To learn it, you will probably need to start from the basics of swordsmanship.”
Lu Yibei was confident and patted her chest, “No problem, just come at it directly, that way we all save time.”
“……”
Today’s young people really don’t know the sky’s height. How could my fully developed ‘Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration’ be that easy to learn?
Alright! I’ll let her see for herself, and also teach her a lesson, to prevent her from being too arrogant and getting taught a lesson by others outside.
Qing Ji thought as he stepped lightly on the ground, his figure soaring like a white crane spreading its wings, gently drawing a sword flower with the sword in hand, creating a gust of whistling wind.
A mournful wail.
At the moment Qing Ji struck the first sword, Lu Yibei heard a fierce, tragic cry.
It was as if ancient memories were awakened and rising from the soil, a sharp scream echoed, sweeping in from all directions.
The chaotic gray clouds danced between heaven and earth, spreading violently as if the cries of countless people transcended in an instant, transforming into a solemn hymn, coalescing into substance, forming a roaring tide above the sky, stirring the wind and clouds.
Immediately following this, Lu Yibei’s eyes began to burn intensely, and after a flurry of blurry images passed by, she saw through the constantly spinning, grand atmosphere of the clouds, catching sight of Qing Ji’s figure moving through them.
That dark gray cloud, the pale mist, the howling wind, all entwined around him, merging into one, a complete harmony.
Suddenly, thunder exploded from deep within the sky; amidst the violent fluctuations in pressure, as Qing Ji danced the sword, he began to sing loudly.
“Taiji Hunlun, as soon as I open my mouth, it divides benevolence and righteousness. It destroys the pure truth, the great way has decayed…
…… All things pull and push, manifesting retreat and advance, the divine furnace is silent and sealed. Obtain a fire, refine a Vajra, surpass heaven and earth!”
————
After a long time.
After finishing a complete set of the ‘Taihe Gentleman Sword Illustration,’ Qing Ji lightly descended beside Lu Yibei, his chin slightly raised, coldly asking, “Have you learned it?”
“No.”
Lu Yibei blinked, her eyes bloodshot, dry, and itchy; massaging her painfully overloaded head from information overload, she shook her head, “No.”
“Hmph, I knew it! Being greedy only leads to setbacks. You should follow me slowly…”
“But I barely memorized it. If you could demonstrate it once more, allowing me to fill in the gaps, I should be able to memorize it completely. In time, I should be able to understand it.”
